dunder-mifflin

Don't do it Rainn.

Fox News' Roger Friedman reports that NBC is actually thinking about giving the Dwight Schrute character his own spin-off show. Friedman is often wrong but this time it was confirmed (sorta) by Wilson himself. Friedman met Wilson at a party after the Tony Awards the other night and Wilson is the one who brought it up.

Remember the twist at the end of the season finale for The Office, where Ryan got the job that Michael, Jim, and Karen interviewed for? Judging from e-mails and other comments, many fans were confused and didn't think that Ryan really got the job, that it was some sort of trick out by the show that would be explained when the new season starts. But it looks like Ryan did indeed get the gig (which is probably good, since it would be weird being in the same office as the girlfriend you just said "we're done" to).

I finally watched the original, British version of The Office, and it's quite good. I still like the American version more though. That has nothing to do with the quality of the British version, really, it has more to do with the pace, the rhythm, the American-ized problems that the show focuses on, and the cast. Though I do think it's just funnier too.

This UK critic agrees. Though he thinks the Ricky Gervais original is a masterpiece and that some of the darker nuances have been lost in the American version, he thinks it's more entertaining and hasn't had that feeling that it had to burn out after a dozen episodes. He loves the fact that after three seasons it's still "remarkably fresh," and likes that Michael Scott is a different sort of annoying boss than David Brent and appreciates the real drama in the Jim/Pam relationship.

I recently posted news that producers of NBC's The Office were seriously thinking about extending the show to an hour every week next season. Some of you loved that idea and some of you hated it. Well, looks like we have a compromise.

According to Kristin over at E! Online, the show will have four, one-hour specials next season, as well as 24 episodes total. That's really good news, in this new age where many "full seasons" of shows often don't even hit 22 episodes. I was watching some old comedies on DVD the other day and noted that they often had 25 or 30 episodes a season back then.

Speaking of one hour, The Office one-hour season finale airs next Thursday at 8.

I get a little bummed out whenever there's a rerun of The Office (I feel the same way when Letterman has a repeat week). But I saw this over at Best Week Ever and it will do until next Thursday.

It's a sneak preview of the next episode, and features Jim Halpert coming into work dressed like and talking like Dwight, which amuses Pam instantly and freaks out Dwight. I gotta say, John Krasinski does a terrific job impersonating the character of Dwight. It would have been so easy to go over the top with the voice and mannerisms, but he's actually kind of subtle.

"Identity theft is not a joke Jim! Millions of families suffer every year!" Video after the jump.

First Stephen Colbert, now The Office.

On a recent episode of the NBC comedy, boss Michael Scott (Steve Carell) went to Wikipedia for tips on how to fire one of his employees. So fans of the show have, naturally, gone to the site and started to edit the entry on negotiations like crazy. Because, as Michael put it (I'm paraphrasing here, don't remember the exact quote), "having a bunch of people edit a web site is best way to get accurate information."

First off, it was a great episode. Dwight shooting Roy in the eyes, all the Toby/Michael stuff (Toby is truly one of the great characters on TV right now), and Ed Helms returning at the end (which I didn't see coming) were all really funny moments. But I'm wondering: was the show really "supersized?"

Oh, I know it was longer. It started at 8pm and got over at 8:40, so it was longer in length, but didn't it seem like there were more commercials than usual? And what about that 4 minute long commercial for 30 Rock? Sure, they increase the length of the episode by 10 minutes, but 4 of those minutes are for an extended promo for another one of NBC's shows? It seemed to be shoved in there and was rather distracting.

Remember when NBC had a slogan for their repeats, "If you've never seen it, it's new to you!" I thought it was actually pretty much true, if a sneaky way to sell reruns.

Now they're going one step further. Next week the network is going to show two repeats of The Office. But instead of just airing them as they aired before, they're going to be recut into an hour-long episode, mixed up a little bit and with deleted scenes added to put in a whole new subplot that you didn't see in the first airings of the episodes. They're dubbing them "Newpeats."

Ed Helms' status has been changed from "recurring" to "regular" on The Office.

This is a little surprising to me. I thought that Andy and Karen would only be on the show for this season, since they were the newbies in the Dunder-Mifflin office and were brought over to just be a wrench in the Jim/Pam and Michael/Dwight relationships. And I thought that this was confirmed in the last couple of episodes, since Jim told Karen he still likes Pam and Michael was hip to Andy's sneaky, suckup-ish ways. But I guess that the people behind the scenes have more plans for these two characters.

Of course, Rashida Jones, who plays Karen, still hasn't been made a regular, so maybe she's on her way out after all. Though if Pam gets back together with Roy, maybe Jim will need her again.

Ah, the people of the internets are endlessly clever. In the tradition of recut trailers such as Brokeback To The Future comes The Office...if it was a crime thriller instead of a Must-See comedy.

My favorite parts: the slow motion shot of Jim in the rear view mirror, Dwight and Ryan out in the empty field, and Kevin saying "My God, what have I done?" They should have ended it with Dwight saying "you're dead" though, instead of the gunshot.

I guess TV shows and movies can look like anything you want them to be. It's all in the editing. I want to see The Wire done as a wacky sitcom.

I think that Jennings actually makes a very smart observation about the show, but I think he's dead wrong in the conclusion he comes to regarding that observation.

The former Jeopardy champ noticed something I noticed too, that the documentary crew supposedly filming the action at Dunder-Mifflin doesn't really act like a documentary crew. The camera seems too "directed," picking up jokes and punchlines and the expressions of employees. It's not like a real documentary at all. It's more like a regular sitcom, only one with handheld cameras, people looking at the cameras, and people talking to the cameras.

There are a lot of celebrity blogs over at TV Guide. Most of them aren't updated on any kind of regular basis, but when they are, they're a treat for fans. Like this blog entry from Kate Flannery, who plays Meredith on The Office. She previews tonight's Christmas episode. I'm a sucker for all Christmas episodes of TV shows and The Office, so tonight should be a great show (it's a special one-hour show starting at 8.)

The blog entry is a little spoiler-ish, but it's not too bad. Just a quick sketch of what the episode is about. She does say that the episode was directed by Harold Ramis (Ghostbusters, Groundhog Day, SCTV, etc) and involves Benihana and a waitress. She also talks a little about her boobs.

Also, I didn't even know that Paul Feig (Freaks and Geeks, Arrested Development, Unaccompanied Minors) was a regular director on The Office. I guess I should pay more attention to the credits.

That's the major revelation from this Ricky Gervais interview in the latest issue of Esquire. Which is probably going to bum out fans of NBC's The Office and the original, hoping for a David Brent guest-spot on the show.

Gervais talks about his role in the new Ben Stiller comedy A Night At The Museum (which also stars Robin Williams, which pretty much means I won't go to see it in the theaters and will only see it on DVD if I read that Williams is only in it for a few minutes), his favorite comics (none are British!), why you have to be a complete fascist when creating art, and why he wouldn't have done the plot with Jim moving to the other Dunder-Mifflin office to get away from Pam.

The second season of HBO's Extras starts on January 14.

Another celebrity story from Paul Davidson in Los Angeles. Really, he should start a separate blog of just celebrity sightings and encounters. (Oh oh, I think I just gave him an idea - Paul, I get a percentage, OK?).

This time Davidson sits near Jenna Fischer of The Office and pretty much overhears the entire interview she did with a health and fitness magazine. Fischer hasn't been a star long enough to start using the "I'm a star in public voice," that low voice a celeb uses when they're in public so no one can hear what they're saying.

Among the little tidbits that he learned about Fischer: she wants the kinds of roles that Christina Applegate gets, she's a supportive wife to her husband (screenwriter James Gunn), she likes working with everyone on the show, and she likes water.

It always hurts me to write sentences like "she's a supportive wife to her husband" when talking about Fischer, because that just reminds me that I'll never have a chance with her.